The Day He Dreads
by Lialane Graest
Summary: Today is a day that Franken Stein has worked hard to forget, believing it would hold no significance to anyone but him. Marie surprises him though. The smell of something sweet baking, a smile and frosting. "Happy Birthday, Franken."


She was baking. Stein could tell that even before he came fully awake, the thick blanket draped over his shoulders and his glasses sat beside his keyboard. He could smell something warm and sweet drifting through the air and he blearily rubbed his eyes as he stumbled to his feet, the blanket sliding off to rest on his chair.

A yawn contorted his features as he slipped his glasses on and walked towards the room that was his kitchen. He paused in the door, looking into the large room. Originally designed to produce enough food to feed the previous hospital's capacity of 40 the room dwarfed the woman standing in it. She was humming a happy tune, stirring something in a large bowl.

As he watched she dipped her finger down and into it, giggling as she licked whatever she was stirring off her finger before sitting the bowl down on one of the stainless steel cabinets. She twirled slightly, her skirt hampering the freedom of her movement and she stopped for a moment to glare down at it. Apparently the skirt wouldn't be enough to keep her from enjoying whatever it was that she was doing.

Stein yawned again and meandered into the kitchen. He caught the woman around the waist while she was unaware of him and let his chin rest on her shoulder, another yawn escaping him.

"It's too early for singing and dancing, Marie." He said quietly, enjoying the feel of her wavelength, the peace that infected him so easily. She laughed and danced away from him.

"It's nearly 1pm, Franken," she said, her eyes alight, "you should have been up ages ago anyway. We have to get back on a regular sleep schedule; classes start up again in less than a week."

"Don't remind me," he said sleepily. "I'm not looking forward to going back to the academy to teach again. I have so many important-" a yawn interrupted him, "-experiments right now."

"And they're all going to have to wait a day or so, Franken." Marie said, and he could have sworn that the smile she wore was actually a smirk.

"Why is that, Marie?" Stein asked, suspicion on his face.

"Because we have plans today."

"Since when?"

A mischievous grin spread across Marie's face. "Since I found out that today is your birthday." All sleepiness vanished in an instance and Stein stared at her with a look of shock on his face. "Don't look at me like that, Franken. I knew you had one; it was just a pain tracking down who actually knew it. I don't know why I didn't just ask Spirit in the first place though…"

While she was lost in thought Stein moved to stand beside her, staring down at her. "We don't have any plans, Marie."

She reached out and tapped his nose with the spoon that she had been stirring with. He realized belatedly that the substance in the bowl was frosting, and the sweet smell must have been a cake. He grabbed the spoon from her and held it away from her.

"I'm serious, Marie. I don't want any plans made because it's my birthday. It's not an important day. It's one I'd rather forget, to be honest." Pain marred the scientist's features and Marie hesitated for a moment.

Her voice was filled with resolve when she finally spoke. "I don't care, Franken. You're going to have a good birthday because I don't care how all your other ones went. You're going to have a cake and presents and all the little things that people deserve on their birthdays." She crossed her arms across her chest and Stein couldn't help but smirk at the small pout that she gave him.

"I'm sorry, Marie, but I'm not leaving the lab. It doesn't matter what you do."

"That's fine!" Marie said happily, grabbing the spoon back from him. Or rather, she tried. With a swift movement the man had it above her head and Marie was standing on her tiptoes to try to reach it.

"Just give it back, Franken!"

"Take it." He said with a smirk, and she looked up at him. A grin crossed her face and Stein found himself frozen as she stretched up his body, her tongue snaking out to lick the frosting off his nose that she had placed their previously.

"Got it!" She crowed out as she moved away from him, and Stein looked up at his empty hand, wondering how she had managed to so completely fluster him. She turned her back on him, moving to check the cake in the oven. With a smile she pulled it out.

Smirking he dipped a finger into the frosting and waited. She turned towards him a second later and his hand snaked out, drawing a line of frosting down her right cheek.

The woman turned crimson, but started laughing. The next thing Stein knew there was frosting on his cheek and chin, and he could feel some of it in his hair and quite probably on the screw where Marie had flicked the spoon at him.

The bag of powdered sugar was closer to him than the frosting was, and he laughed as he flung a handful at her, the white substance covering her blonde hair. She retaliated with more frosting. Before long, both were covered with frosting and powdered sugar and Marie was giggling while Stein chuckled.

"So, Marie, why was it fine that I wasn't planning on leaving the lab?" He asked as she stopped laughing, their ammunition spent.

"Because I had never planned on leaving it, Franken. I had plans for you for today that only involved staying in the lab." She smiled sweetly before adding, "Just the two of us."

He looked at her and she held her hand out to him. He took it hesitantly and she drug him into their sitting room. She pulled a brown package out from behind a sofa cushion and handed it to him.

"Happy birthday, Franken." She said as he opened it.

In his hands he held a copy of "The most intriguing dissections of the 20th century, with commentary." It was a 4 disc DVD set.

"I figured you might be interested in it, Franken." She said shyly.

He smiled and gave her a rare hug. "Thank you, Marie." Marie blushed scarlet and enjoyed the hug, wondering who's birthday it really was.

* * *

**A/N: Aww, happy bday Stein, whenever it really is :3 **

**I hope you enjoyed, I don't own Soul Eater!**


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